


What Started As Petty Revenge

by afteriwake



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Awesome Sally Donovan, BAMF Sally, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, Eventual Sally Donovan/Greg Lestrade, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Lestrade-centric, POV Lestrade, Past Greg Lestrade/Lestrade's Wife, Revenge, Sally Donovan & Greg Lestrade Friendship, Silver Fox Lestrade, Weddings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-01
Updated: 2016-02-01
Packaged: 2018-05-17 16:44:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5878120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Lestrade is invited to the wedding of a friend who is a mutual friend of his ex-wife, Sally agrees to go as his girlfriend for the three days of festivities in Dover as a bit of petty revenge against his ex. But it doesn't turn out quite as planned when true feelings from all involved come to the surface and Lestrade needs to make some decisions about who he wants in his life and in what way he wants them in it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Started As Petty Revenge

**Author's Note:**

> so this fic came about because there is a lack of Sallstrade fic in the fandom and some anonymous user sent a brilliant idea to **loryisunabletosupinate** that I offered to write (" _Fake relationship Salstrade: Lestrade has to go to the wedding of a mutual friend of his ex/estranged wife. Knowing she'll bring her new boyfriend, he gripes about it to Sally, who offers to go as his pretend girlfriend. When they get there, all of Lestrade's other friends have no problem accepting this, because it turns out Lestrade is constantly talking about how incredible his coworker Sally is and mentions her a lot._ ")...and then I decided it should be multiple parts. I will do my absolute best not to let this languish, I swear!

He held the invitation in his hand. After the divorce the majority of the mutual friends he’d had with his ex-wife had drifted away, mostly because he’d thrown himself into his work and just not wanted to be reminded of his whole life with Elise. It had lasted for a while now, going on four years, but not everyone had let him push them away, and the invitation was proof of that. Kevin Jameson had been a good friend of both his and Elise, and he’d managed to stay friends with both of them through the divorce and the aftermath.

And now that he was getting married, he wanted both of them there to celebrate his good fortune. Greg was all for celebrating the good news in his friend’s life, but he wasn’t really in the mood to have to spend a whole afternoon and evening in the company of his ex-wife and her new boyfriend while he was there by himself. Damn it all, he just wanted to have at least a hint of pride, prove that he wasn’t sad and lonely and pathetic.

Even if he actually _was_.

With a sigh he tossed the invitation on his desk and then leaned back in his chair. A wedding wasn’t the time to take a first date. No, he’d learned that lesson long ago at his brother’s wedding in the 80s. In fact, that was where he had met Elise. It had almost been love at first sight, as far as he was concerned, and he had thought she had felt the same. Guess he was wrong. But for _this_ wedding, it was best to try and see if he could bring a friend to pretend to be his date.

He didn’t have many to choose from, though. Most of the women he knew were either married or in relationships. Molly was a possibility, but that would means stepping on Sherlock’s toes, if the man would ever get off his arse and do anything about that. This left one other possibility, though he really wasn’t sure he wanted to subject her to it, in all honesty. And besides, Elise _hated_ her.

Though if nothing else, maybe she could offer advice. He knew she’d been in similar positions before.

He picked up the invitation and left his office, making his way down to Sally’s office. Or DI Donovan, as he supposed she _should_ be called. It was her right, after all. She’d worked hard for her promotion, fought tooth and nail for it, even after all the crap that had come down after Sherlock had faked his death. He’d been pretty proud of her and every time he had to deal with his still green DS he realized they’d made a phenomenal team and he missed that but yeah, she’d deserved a chance to shine on her own.

He got to her door and saw she was there, hair pulled back in a ponytail, hunched over her desk reading something or other. Case file, from the looks of it. He knocked on her door and she looked up, giving him a grin. “Greg. Sight for sore eyes.”

“I think anything’s better than poring over a case file,” he said, leaning against the doorjamb.

“God, try going through twenty of them,” she said, closing it and leaning back in her seat. “Trying to piece together a common thread in all of these beatings that might be linked to my two homicides.”

Greg nodded. “You could always ask—”

“ _Don’t_ say Holmes,” she said, holding up a hand.

He chuckled. “I was going to say Molly,” he said. “If there’s anything medically linking them, she’d probably be able to help you out. Besides, I’ve got Sherlock’s attention focused on my case and I don’t feel like sharing.”

She considered it. “I may just do that. It’s been a while since she and I spent time together anyway. If I treat her to lunch it might not be all bad.”

“Make it gin at Viaduct and I can guarantee you’ll have her cooperation,” he said with a grin. “I think she’s stressed about work, and not being able to go out for a drink with her other friends has put a damper on her mood. Having good drinks to go with work related stuff would do you better than lunch.”

“You seem to know a lot about her mood,” Sally said, eyeing him.

“I’m on a potential serial case. I’ve been spending a lot of time at Barts, watching her. She needed to vent so I took her to lunch yesterday to go over results. I think some time with a good friend and good booze will do her a world of good.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Sally said with a nod. “I know you didn’t just come over to talk about cases, though.”

“You always could read me well,” he said, shaking his head.

“It doesn’t take a genius like Holmes to read you, Greg,” she replied with a grin. “That’s why you were always shite at poker.” He came into her office and handed her the invitation. She read it over once, and then again. The second time, comprehension filled her face. “ _Oh_. Mutual friend of yours and hers, I take it?”

Lestrade nodded. “Yeah. And Elise is pretty serious about this new guy she’s with.”

“Oh, you mean more than the other, what, six or seven since the divorce?” Sally said, a tinge of bitterness in her voice.

“Well, from what I hear it’s living together serious,” he said with a shrug. “And I don’t really want to show up alone. I mean, I don’t normally _mind_ being alone, but having to be around her…”

“I understand,” Sally said. She looked back at the invitation. “We have to go to Dover?”

“We?” he asked.

“Like I’m going to let you go to this alone,” she said. “Especially since she hates me. I mean, she _did_ try and insinuate we were together when you brought up _her_ affair. Didn’t work, but…”

He scratched at his chin. “If I tell him I’m coming and bringing a date, I can see about trying to get us a room with two beds now before they’re all gone. It’s three days of festivities, over the bank holiday, so it’s three days we have to act like we’re together. Are you _sure_ you want to do this?”

“To be honest, anything to wipe the smirk of Elise’s face will make me quite happy,” Sally said with a shrug. “She never did deserve you. So yeah, I’ll go. I’ll pretend to be your girlfriend. It’s only for three days. I can shift things around and get time off since it’s a few weeks away. Just promise me one thing, Greg.”

“What?” he asked.

“We’ll put on the most lovely dovey couple act we can so I can make her weekend absolutely miserable,” Sally said, a gleam in her eye.

He grinned at that. “I promise,” he said. “I’ll go make the arrangements and let you know the details later.”

“All right,” she said with a nod, handing him back the invitation. He took it before heading back out, a slight bounce in his step. He was normally not a person who took pleasure in petty revenge but just this once he was going to indulge, and he had the feeling it was going to be spectacular.


End file.
